Dear Women...

I would like to start off this post by explaining my sudden disappearance. Briefly. I was absolutely swarmed with work. And by "work", I mean the amount of work and school assignments were overwhelming that I wouldn't have finished everything even if I had turned into a vampire and hadn't needed any sleep. Fortunately, I am still alive. Unfortunately, I somehow got chickenpox along the way. I blame my mom for not exposing me to the disease when I was little. (Kidding, mom, I love you.) If you haven't had chickenpox or your memory of having it is vague because you got it when you were too young, let me tell you something, chickenpox is honestly the most annoying disease you can ever contract. Picture this: your body covered in pus-filled rash. Your whole body is itchy as can be, but you can't scratch it because it hurts and you don't want scars. Yay.

Image via vernlife.gwublogs.com

Anyway, this post is not about chickenpox. Last Saturday was International Women's Day. It is considered as a national holiday for many countries around the world, including Cambodia. It was first recognized by the United Nations back in 1975. Since 1996, the United Nations has elected an annual theme for the International Women's Day; with this year's theme being: "Inspiring Change".

I know it's a bit too late for me to be a part of the IWD celebration, but I want to dedicate this post as a look-back on the changes that us women have accomplished. I didn't plan on writing about this at all, to be honest with you, because I have written quite a few articles about equal rights and how women are being treated. The decision to write this post came when I noticed a post by a friend of mine on Facebook.

I'm working on a project that focuses on civic engagement plus the occasional sexual reproductive health. Usually, we have to find people with experiences to share with the viewers and listeners in our show. To make it more convenient, my co-worker (who also happens to be a friend of mine) utilizes the use of social network to find people. He posted a status asking if anyone in his friends list knew when their girlfriend got her period. The responses that he got was shocking to me. Most of his female "friends" lashed out at him for asking such an "inappropriate" question. One even said if he had asked that question in public, he would've been slapped. I am simply baffled by such responses. I have personally even heard many women say that one of the most common reasons of rape is because women are dressed "inappropriately". Seriously, people? More importantly, seriously, women?

I want us to take a look back on the progress that we have made since patriarchy began 6,000 years ago, and why we, as women, might even hinder our progress after so many years.

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• 1722: Russia, ban against forced marriages

• 1786: Russia, primary and high schools for females  

• 1792: France, divorce is legalized for both sexes

• 1841: Bulgaria, the first secular girls school makes education and the profession of teacher available for women

• 1843: USA, Kentucky, married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

• 1850: France, elementary education for both sexes, but girls are only allowed to be tutored by teachers from the church. Haiti: The first permanent school for girls. Iceland: Equal inheritance. USA, Oregon: Unmarried women are allowed to own land.

• 1863: Denmark, colleges open to women

• 1885: France, divorce legalized for both women and men

• 1893: New Zealand, equal voting rights to women.  
• 1895: Austria-Hungary, universities open to women
• 1900: Japan, the first Women's University
• 1906: Finland, adopted woman suffrage
• 1920: On August 26, a constitutional amendment is adopted when the state of Tennessee ratifies it, granting full woman suffrage in all states of the United States.
• 1928: The United Kingdom, full equal voting rights to women.  
• 1946: Women allowed to stand for election in Myanmar. 
• 1973: USA, Roe v. Wade, right to abortion secured
• 1980: Iran gave women the vote
• 1989: The Supreme Court of Canada decides that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination.
• 1991: Great Britain: England and Wales, marital rape was made illegal by the case of R v R.
• 2002: UK, Parliament passes measures allowing lesbian and unmarried couples to adopt children

Looking at that timeline, it saddens me to know that it wasn't until 1792 that divorce was legal for both sexes. That is less than 250 years ago. And it wasn't until the 19th century when colleges were opened to women. Iran just gave women the rights to vote 34 years ago! That was in our parents' lifetime. In addition to that, I would like to point out that abortion has only been legal for 41 years. Now I don't want to go into the entire pro-life vs. pro-choice argument, but I want to point out until only then were we granted the rights to our body. Before then, we had no legal rights to do what we want with our body; case in point: abortion. The icing on top of that ridiculous cake is that fact that marial rape was only made legal 23 years ago! That was only 3 years before I was born.

Most of our progress have been made in the last 3 generations. That means what we are entitled to

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now, might not be possible for our parents just decades ago. We have come a long way from sitting at home, having no rights, waiting for our husband to come home, and be at the mercy of his moods. Now what enraged me about the comments on my friend's status was that we are living in the 21st century where we are given the privilege to let our voices be heard. But what do we want to do? We want to not talk. We want to hold on to old patriarchy traditions. We want to be submissive. Image the shame that we are bringing to the brave and inspiring women (and men) who have even died to get us this far.

As a woman who blogs about every single issue including sexual health, I do get frowned upon by people for talking about such "inappropriate" topic so openly. But guess what? Sex is the most natural thing in the world. It's how we are still here. It's how every living creature is still here. More importantly, we are one of the very few species to be granted the gift of having sexual engagement for pleasure. Shouldn't we be grateful for that rather than treat it as a taboo? The more we talk about it, the more issues we can avoid. It's only when we voice your opinion can you get feedback and comments from others. Only then can you open your horizon and see things from another perspective. Ladies, please stand up and own up to our rights.

My apologies for the long ranting, but I just could not keep that inside. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinion down below.

Love, Catherine

XOXO

Source:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/suffrage/a/intl_timeline.htm
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/equality-and-diversity/doc/gender-equality-timeline.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_rights_%28other_than_voting%29
http://www.ournellie.com/womens-suffrage/history-of-womens-rights
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/history.html
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/theme.asp#.Ux23J9kt35M
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy